Thursday, May 28, 2009

Last weekend, we rented I Am Legend, the 2007 post-apocalyptic nightmare starring Will Smith and a lot of creepy CGI humanoids.

Will Smith's character is one of the only unaffected survivors of a cancer cure gone horribly awry — a re-engineered virus that has mutated into a plague, turning its victims into superaggressive flesh-eating monsters who can only come out after dark.

It was a difficult movie to watch, and several times I nearly left the room.

I'm glad I stuck around to see the ending. As with so many movies, the Christ theme showed up. This one, though, took it a step further than the frequently-seen lead-character-sacrifices-himself-for-others plotline.

(NOTE: If you haven't seen the movie yet, you may want to skip the rest of this post. Go rent the movie, watch it, and then come back and read. It's OK, I'll wait.)

Smith plays Lt. Col. Robert Neville, a military research scientist who spends his days searching for uninfected humans and attempting to isolate the antibody in his own blood that makes him immune to the virus, so that he can create a cure that will return the zombies to their human state.

After experiencing failure after failure as his lab rats die or remain unaffected by various formulations, Neville sees a glimmer of hope in one rat whose behavior and appearance have returned to normal, so he traps one of the zombies for a "human clinical trial."

The antitoxin looks like another failure up until the end. By this point, two fellow survivors (Anna and Ethan) have found Neville, but they have carelessly left a trail of blood, and the monsters have tracked them down and invaded the house.

As the three lock themselves in Neville's lab, he notices the clinical-trial zombie has recovered. He knows he is trapped, but as the zombies begin to break through the lab's plexiglass wall, Neville sends Anna and Ethan to hide in the lab's safe.

Neville draws a vial of the now-recovered zombie's blood. He hands it to Anna with instructions to stay hidden in the safe until morning, then reaches into a drawer for a grenade.

Just before he pulls the pin and rushes through the lab wall into the zombie onslaught, Neville leaves Anna with these words:

"The cure is in the blood."

So we have a man, immune to the disease that has wreaked havoc on the world, giving his life to save the endangered... and his blood to save the fallen.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

After nearly four years of inactivity, I've decided to resurrect this blog.

Back in 2005, I began blogging to chronicle a ministry trip to Rwanda that I took with a group from Mars Hill Bible Church. (You can dig through the archives and read a bit about that trip. And you can see that doing ministry got in the way of blogging about doing ministry... so I decided to drop the blogging part.)

Since then, many things have happened in my life. For one, I completed a master's degree at GRTS and became a licensed counselor in 2008. Although the Rwanda trip remains a pivotal experience for me, there are several other topics I'd like to write about here – observations about life and faith and how they interact.

I'll probably touch on some areas from my own background – e.g., growing up atheist, battling a serious depression, parenting a prodigal. Because the Lord led me through these times, I think I have a greater measure of empathy for those in the midst of them.

I'll probably write about current counseling experiences (within the bounds of confidentiality, of course).

And I'll attempt to respond to comments and questions from readers... assuming there are any!

now reading...

about me...

I am a follower of Christ, counselor, and student... I like to read, write, sing, laugh, learn new things, travel to new places, and do homey domestic stuff... my favorite color is purple... and I always have a cherry ChapStick in my pocket.

favorite quotes...

"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"The art of therapy revolves around helping clients to bow out of their symptoms gracefully.” psychiatrist Milton Erickson (1901-1980)

Documented conversation between Martin Luther & Philip Melanchthon: Melanchthon said, "Martin, this day we will discuss the governance of the universe." To which Luther responded, "Philip, this day you and I will go fishing and leave governance of the universe to God."

"If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost." author Lloyd C. Douglas (1877-1951)

In 1767 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: "The Lord himself is our Keeper. Nothing befalls us but what is adjusted by His wisdom and love. He will, in one way or another, sweeten every bitter cup, and ere long He will wipe away all tears from our eyes."